So yesterday we covered the mixed first reactions to Disney’s live-action Moana. If you read that piece you’ll know one specific observation showed up in more than a few of those reactions. Dwayne Johnson’s wig. The luscious, long, flowing locks that Maui sports throughout the film became something of a talking point online. People spent a good deal of time questioning the hair rather than the film itself. As hilarious as you may think this is, Johnson has responded with an answer that just may satisfy your curiosity around the luscious locks.
Speaking at the film’s LA premiere at the Hollywood Bowl, Johnson said the internet’s reaction to his onscreen look “was so funny” and that he “spent 48 hours laughing at it, because the internet can be very funny at times.” He then added, with complete self-awareness, “I get it, I’m a pretty well-known bald actor and you see me all of a sudden with long flowing locks and curls.” As reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
Yeah, that’s right. The man looked at an entire internet making fun of his hair and responded with 48 hours of laughter. But here’s what’s worth taking into account. The hair is far from a stylist’s choice or a directorial quirk for that matter. Director Thomas Kail explained that when Disney first developed the original animated Moana, the creative team initially envisioned Maui as bald. Now really, a bald Maui, that’s hard to imagine. And so, The Oceanic Cultural Trust, the group of Pacific Islander consultants brought in to ensure the story was told authentically, stopped them in their tracks.
Their response was direct: “Maui’s hair is his power, there is no Maui without hair.” So the wig was never really up for debate. Seriously, there would absolutely be no Maui without the hair. So it would be rather unnatural to have had it in the animated version and the live-action. The internet can have its fun all it wants. But Maui has hair because the people who know Maui’s story, know that there could never be a bald Maui.
The other conversation that’s been following this film around, is the “too soon” debate. Johnson addressed that one at the premiere as well. The argument that a live-action remake arriving just two years after Moana 2 and ten years after the original is rushing things, just a tad. Also that Disney didn’t give audiences enough time to miss it before bringing it back in a different format. Johnson said plainly that he never bought into that idea for a single minute. His reasoning was simple. The themes in the animated Moana, translate differently when you see a real person going through them. The version of the story that showcases a real young girl, is a story worth telling.
Johnson was backed by Thomas Kail on this. Kail pointed out that the audience who was seven years old when they saw the animated film in 2016 is now seventeen. The one who was ten is now twenty. He said those are “seismic changes” in a person’s life, and that the appetite for this story was clearly still there given how Moana 2 performed.
Lin-Manuel Miranda added another dimension to the conversation entirely. He said there’s a meaningful difference between representing Pacific Islander culture in an animated film and giving Pacific Islander performers actual jobs, opportunities, and real representation on screen in a live-action context. That, he said, was exciting and worth doing. He also pointed out that they found their Maui in Johnson, and that they found their Moana in Catherine Laga’aia, who was chosen from 32,000 submissions. When you’ve got both of those pieces in place at the same time, you make the film.
And look, whether you find any of that convincing or not probably depends on how you feel about Disney’s live-action remake machine in general. The “too soon” argument isn’t going to go away anytime soon. And neither is the broader question of what exactly these remakes are adding. But Johnson’s wig explanation is genuinely interesting context that most people making the jokes online didn’t have. Maui’s hair is his power. There is no Maui without it. And apparently, there is no live-action Moana without a very well-known bald actor wearing a very long wig. Whether the internet likes it or not.
Moana opens in cinemas July 9.
